Vodka/orange peels, How long to soak. When to add to 2ndary

Im going to soak some orange zest/peel in some vodka to add to my PA in secondary. I searched past threads and I have 2 questions that I cant find any where. 1) How long do you soak the zest in the vodka 2) Im going to strain the vodka and pour into secondary, How long should I let the orange liquid sit in the secondary. I have 1 week left on the scheduled secondary.

There's two ways to do it. Either you soak the orange in the vodka so that the vodka becomes flavored, and add that when you bottle, or you soak the orange in vodka to sanitize it, and then pitch the sanitized orange into the brew.

1. if youre macerating citrus peels/zest in vodka to make an orange extract for flavoring, then you want to give it a lot of time. 2-3 weeks minimum. You can then add this right before bottling, to taste. if you're only using the vodka to sanitize the orange, then it's pretty much done in no-time. You could let it sit overnight to be safe.

2. if you're going the route of using the orange to flavor the vodka to make an extract, just add it at bottling time. If you're adding the orange to the beer after sanitizing with the vodka, then i'd let it soak as long as you can stand it - longer = more flavor extraction.

I added my orange tincture 2 days before I kegged... I added it to give a wit that was lacking a little more orange.. I use everclear and put in the freezer and everytime im at the fridge I give it a shake for a week.. Added all of it to the secondary

Is there any reason that you couldn't use McCormick Orange Extract instead of fresh zest or a tincture from zest?

http://www.mccormick.com/Products/Extracts-and-Food-Colors/Extracts/Pure-Orange-Extract.aspx

I know this is kind of a old thread but I have some similar questions. I am adding orange peel and crystallized ginger to a spiced weizenbock tomorrow night. I just put the peel in some rum tonight to sanitize for 24hrs, I didn't want to extract all the orange flavor. Now I am wondering if I should add some if not all the rum if it takes a good bit of the orange flavor. Its probably around 3/4 cup of rum/orange.

You could probably add the rum too. Depending on the rum, itll give some rum flavor, but itll be faint. Spiced rum frequently has some orange in it anyways, but it usually gets buried behind copious amounts of vanilla